Not quite paperless

26 Mar 2013

Going paperless is all very well, but there are some bits of paper that it makes sense to keep, or that you have to keep for legal reasons. Documents relating to tax, receipts, utility bills (for when you have to prove your address), and so on - all have to be kept for x number of years.

David Allen, of GTD fame, recommends filing material like this in an alphabetical system. Easy to implement but it’s going to get bigger and bigger over time…

Next time I receive a “keeper” I’ll file it alphabetically, but with a tiny colour coded sticker indicating “year of disposal”. I retain easy retrieval but can now perform an annual “purge” without having to examine every bit of paper. In 2015, I’ll just bin/shred everything with an orange dot on.

Tags: paper, data, digital, scanning

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